Policemen get 14 years for schoolgirl’s death

Expectations by defence attorneys of a non-custodial sentence for the three cops found guilty of manslaughter in relation to the 2012 death of Immaculate Conception High School student 16-year-old Vanessa Kirkland were shattered yesterday as Presiding Judge Justice Carol Lawrence-Beswick said that the imposition of a fine would be inappropriate and that imprisonment was required.

The judge made the declaration before handing down a 14-and-a-half-year prison sentence against Constables Ardewain Smith, 35; Durvin Hayles, 33; and Anna-Kay Bailey, 27, at the Home Circuit Court in downtown Kingston.

Last week, defence attorneys made an application to the court to impose a fine on their clients or, in the alternative, to give them a sentence below the usual starting point of five years and to consider and grant bail pending an appeal.

BAIL OPPOSED

Prosecuting attorney-at-law Kathy-Ann Pyke opposed the bail application saying it was “inappropriate, improper, and premature”.

During the five-week trial, which started in January, the prosecution suggested that on March 20, 2012, Constables Smith, Hayles and Bailey drove on to Norman Lane some time after 9 o’clock and opened fire on a blue Suzuki Swift motor car parked along the left side of the road.

Kirkland, who was in the vehicle with six other occupants, was fatally shot.

However, throughout the trial, defence attorneys asserted that the cops acted in self-defence, having been fired upon by armed men who alighted from the vehicle.

The trio were found guilty on February 8 of the lesser offence of manslaughter by a seven-member jury.